Zoning Board delays vote on day care

Updated 10:01 pm, Tuesday, December 6, 2011

STAMFORD -- Residents will have to wait another week to learn whether the city will approve a controversial plan to build a day-care facility and condominium complex on High Ridge Road.

With the Zoning Board unable to reach a consensus, Chairman Tom Mills ended the panel's meeting late Monday night without taking a vote on the project submitted by High Ridge jeweler and developer Nagi Osta.

Osta is seeking to build 17 condominiums and a day-care center on a 1.5-acre site between Bradley Place and Maplewood Place.

"I thought we were a little bit more close on a consensus," Mills told the board. "Right now, things are not going through the way that I thought they would. And that disappoints me."

Mills spent nearly an hour trying to bridge a divide on the five-member board created by the use of the day care facility. Many neighboring and nearby residents have strongly opposed the facility, which would be set up to enroll as many as 120 children. Such a large-scale facility, they argued, would create a traffic nightmare on High Ridge Road and neighboring streets.

"We are ignoring an outcry from the public, which I think is unconscionable," said member Audrey Cosentini,

About a dozen residents sat in the audience, many wearing anti-Nagi stickers.

As in previous meetings, Cosentini once again stated she would not support the project as long as there was a day-care component.

On the other side, members Maria Nakian and Harry Parson have said they see no problem with day care and would vote to approve the project, with the exception of requiring an additional driveway along Bradley Place.

Yet another member, Barry Michelson, has been highly critical of the project. He was initially against day care, but on Monday indicated he would accept it if the capacity was reduced to 75 children.

Using that as a starting point, Mills attempted to broker a compromise.

But both Nakian and Parson balked at what they viewed as a drastic reduction for day care.

"I don't know if it would work and how it may jeopardize the whole project," Nakian said. "If we are changing the whole project, I would prefer to have something closer to the one in the project."

Similarly, Parson responded, "How the hell is a businessman supposed to make it work when you take away 40 percent of his business?"